Increased prison deaths can be a consequence of reducing the number incarcerated. After an extended headline story drooling over the Lord Provost’s above-board underwear expenses, today, they gave us this: ‘Three men have died in Barlinnie Prison in Glasgow in four days. A fourth prisoner was also found dead over the weekend at Low Moss Prison in East Dunbartonshire. Fatal Accident Inquiries will be held into each death. Holyrood’s Public Audit Committee heard that ten of Scotland’s prisons are overcrowded and that staff sickness levels are up to 50%. All that’s increasing pressure on the service and the Auditor General … Continue reading Reporting Scotland Down get it all wrong on prison deaths

I thought I’d deal with this before Lisa Summers or Helen McCardle slaver all over it: In NHS Scotland, agency nurses cost the country £26.2 million in 2018-19, up from £17.1 million in 2014-15 and bank nurses cost £161.9 million in 2018-19, up from £138.8 million in 2014-15 – a rise of 17%. https://rcni.com/nursing-standard/newsroom/news/agency-nurse-spend-scotland-reaches-new-high-154466?utm_source=Adestra Total in 2018/19 is £188.1 million In NHS England, as at the end of 2018, NHS trusts were forecasting spending some £5.6 billion on temporary staff in 2018/19. https://www.nuffieldtrust.org.uk/resource/the-nhs-workforce-in-numbers#4-what-do-the-shortages-look-like-for-staff-delivering-care-close-to-patients-homes So, all things being equal, the NHS England figure should be around 11 times that of Scotland or £2.07 … Continue reading SNP tell Boris they can manage NHS England for him as temporary nurse spending soars there to nearly THREE times higher per head of population than in Scotland

Above, see how the state broadcaster and the Tory press chose to report and see below how a Scottish agency that actually knows about housing was able to uncover the truth quite easily. Here’s the truth: Sir Martin Moore-Blick said: “From the evidence put before me in Phase 1, two very important matters have come to light: first, that in its origin the fire at Grenfell Tower was no more than a typical kitchen fire; second, that the fire was able to spread into the cladding as a result of the proximity of combustible materials to the kitchen windows. https://www.scottishhousingnews.com/article/combustible-materials-clearly-at-fault-for-spread-of-grenfell-tower-fire … Continue reading Grenfell: How the English establishment and the state broadcaster always scapegoat the worker

Note: BBC Scotland’s Disclosure team not involved due to conflict of interest and inability to follow trail. Research: Brian McGowan The Scottish Government announced yesterday, too politely: Active farmers and crofters will benefit from the first instalment of convergence funding that the Scottish Government has long campaigned for. The initial £80 million will be distributed to support active farming, with a focus on those who farm in our marginal uplands, hill farms and island areas. The funding is the first tranche of a £160 million package the UK Government has agreed to pay to rectify a ‘historic wrong’ relating to … Continue reading Slimy Gove gives Scottish farmers back their own money in cynical election ploy

In the Holyrood Education, Communities and Justice Committee on Tuesday 29th October 2019: Jenny Marra (North East Scotland) (Scottish Labour): To ask the Scottish Government when it will acknowledge and reply to the letter of 22 April 2019 from the Head of the School of Mathematics and Statistics at the University of St Andrews, Professor Mark Chaplain, which set out a mathematical and scientific assessment of the breast cancer dosages in NHS Tayside. Holding answer issued: 29 October 2019 (S5W-25579) Jeane Freeman: A holding answer was provided. Click to access WA20191029.pdf Boy, has she changed her tune! Professor Chaplain’s arrival … Continue reading Jenny Marra’s humungous hypocrisy as she slides to the other side on NHS Tayside’s breast cancer treatment

Will anyone else report this? I see no sign so far. From the ONS yesterday: In 2019, 8.7% of employee jobs in London were low-paid, compared with an average of 16.2% in the rest of the UK (Figure 1). Similarly, London had a higher proportion of high-paid jobs compared with the rest of the UK (42.5% compared with an average of 25.4%, respectively). The country with the lowest proportion of low-paid employee jobs was Scotland with 14.5%. In Wales, the proportion was 19.1% and in Northern Ireland it was 21.1%. The proportion of low-paid employee jobs since 2000 has decreased … Continue reading LATEST: Low-paid employment falling fastest in Scotland to the lowest in the UK after 11 years of SNP rule but no reports in our NoMedia?

In the Herald today, another big fib designed to scare and based on the shoddiest of journalism. Readers will remember a smelly trail of such lies and distortions in the Scottish media, going back all the way to RSD’s Eleanor Bradford and all the way down to the ‘dysfunctional’ Lisa Summers. The Herald’s Helen McCardle has been the most obvious example in the press and today she’s up to her usual tricks with the above claim. We hear: HALF of doctors in Scotland now intend to retire earlier than previously planned, with the vast majority blaming huge pension tax bills. The survey … Continue reading We wonder why TV and Newspaper health correspondents are the worst of a very bad lot as the Herald lies again on NHS staffing

Beginning only yesterday, BBC Wales have shown worrying signs of being unable to attack either the nationalists or Labour by blaming them for NHS problems, even as the latter show signs of softening on independence and after their First Minister shared a platform with the Scottish First Minister. Today, the symptoms worsened and a crack team headed up by Sarah Smith, the BBC’s Foreign Correspondent in Glasgow, has dashed south to try to teach them how to do it. Today’s symptoms suggest a complete breakdown in their immunity against independence for Wales: In none of the above reports were any … Continue reading BBC Wales losing Proxy War! BBC Scotland team in emergency dash to Llanfrechfa

Continue reading Today’s tweets: BBC Wales can teach BBC Scotland and fewer defence jobs

Ludo Thierry Further encouraging news on the Diet and Healthy Weight front from today’s stats carried on news.gov.scot site (the numbers are holding steady over a decent period following a long period of rising overweight and obesity numbers during the bad old britnat govt years). Link and snippets below: https://news.gov.scot/news/diet-and-healthy-weight-statistics-published Scotland’s Chief Statistician today released Diet and Healthy Weight statistics. This is a compendium publication bringing together data mostly already published by various other sources on obesity, diabetes, diet, healthy living awards and sales of soft drinks, confectionery, biscuits, cakes and pastries. Main findings Overweight and obesity In 2018, 65% … Continue reading The unbearable weight of the Union?